


The Cape Cod Killer

by Liltal12



Category: Original Work
Genre: Detective Work, bad assery, murders, plot loosely based on criminal minds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 07:44:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 7,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9427484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liltal12/pseuds/Liltal12
Summary: When three bodies are found in a park in Cape Cod, who better to be put on the case than Detective Bernadette Parker and her partner Steve Brooks? But beware, things are not all how they seem, and The Cape has gone from a prime spot to vacation with your children, to a place you should never bring them





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! So, this is the first story I've ever written, so I would love some feedback, but please be nice to me, I'm fragile.
> 
> Also, the premise is loosely based on the show criminal minds but it doesn't have the same characters or anything

RING RING RING RING RING RING―  
Bernadette Parker jerked awake to the sound of her ringtone blaring at full volume, fumbling around on the night stand in a frantic effort to make the damn thing shut up.  
“Hullo?”  
“Uh, is this detective Parker”  
“Yeah, what’s up? it’s four in the morning, you know,” she said, blinking the sleep out of her eyes.  
“Sorry detective, but, uh, Captain Lawrence told me to call you now. A camper in the golden shores camping park found three bodies when she went to let her dog go to the bathroom.”  
“Oh, shit. I’ll, uh, I’ll be there in twenty.”  
Dot flopped onto her back, letting out a groan as she threw her phone back down on the nightstand. She was exhausted, having just gotten off a red eye flight back from a visit to her parents. A week listening to ‘did you hear that Martin from down the road is single again? I bet you could get a man and settle down if you would stop spending so much time playing policeman’ and ‘it’s bad enough you went into the army of all things, but come on, Bernadette, a detective? Is that really how you want to spend the rest of your life?’ really grated on her nerves, until she wanted to sleep for days. But instead she rolled out of bed and quickly got ready for the day, strapping her gun onto her belt and grabbing a bagel for the road as she rushed out to her car.  
As she parked by the police tape, she saw the tall, bulky shape of Steven Brooks, her partner, talking with a pale, shocked looking camper. She got out of the car, looking around at the various personnel milling around, as he caught sight of her and waved her over.  
“Hey Dot, this is Sean Green, he’s the camper whose dog found the grave,” he said as she shook hands with the clammy man. “If you want to look over the crime scene, I’ll get his statement and we can meet up back at the station.”  
“Sounds good. I’ll see you then, ” she said, and poor Sean Green waved shakily, then was guided by Brooks to a nearby bench, where they sat and began talking.  
“And Dot,” Brooks called over his shoulder, “Welcome back.”  
She waved again, then ducked under the yellow tape surrounding the crime scene, taking care to avoid stepping on the evidence markers scattered throughout the clearing. A tall, thin cop in uniform turned around as she approached, mouth splitting into a wide grin.  
“Well hey there Dot, what a welcome back gift, eh?” he said, teeth shining in the glaring brightness of the spotlights. “We missed ya round here, you been gone a whole week.”  
“Never thought I’d miss your face, Tim, but eight days with my parents would make anyone crazy.”  
“Ha ha ha Dot. Good one. Now get over here, we’ve got three boys, they look about six, all buried in one grave, but not killed at the same time,” he said, walking her over to the hole where three little bodies rested, bloated and purple tinged. Dot peered over the side, wrinkling her nose in disgust at smell.  
“Christ, Tim, they look as though they could be brothers, same hair color and everything. And they’re wearing the same clothes, that’s odd.” Dot said, before being unceremoniously shoved out of the way by the coroner and his trolley. “Well then, I guess I’ll get out of your way,” she muttered under her breath, throwing him a glare before giving her best wishes to Tim and walking out of the scene.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dot and Brooks begin to investigate, starting with getting the report from the coroner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!  
> Read on and please review!

As she drove towards the small town police station, Dot started to mull over the case in her head. Three nearly identical looking boys, killed on different days but still buried in the same grave. Odd. And odder still was the clothing they were all wearing and… what about their parents? Surely there would have been reports made if three families had had their children taken from them. Unless they were unable to put on in? Or didn't care? They'd have to talk to the families and figure out why not once they ID’d the bodies. She pulled into the parking lot and parked her car. Walking into the station, she was greeted by complete chaos. She pushed through the crowd of uniformed cops until she reached the door of the office she and Steven Brooks shared.  
“Hey Dot, perfect timing. I just got the call from the coroner's office, they ID’d the bodies and are ready for us if we want to go watch the autopsies,” he said, looking up from the paperwork he was writing up. “The camper said his dog started digging at something, and when he went over to see what it was, he saw an arm. He called the police, they dug up the bodies, and that’s where we came in.”  
“Sounds like the truth. What I’m wondering is why no one reported those boys missing. We should talk to the families after we get the rundown from the M.E.,” she said. Brooks nodded, putting his paperwork aside and following Dot to the door. The car ride there was silent, each of them wondering what clues would be uncovered by the autopsy reports. When they entered into the autopsy room, they were greeted by the smell of partially decomposed bodies, preserving chemicals, and the yells of an angry supervisor berating his underlings.  
“―stupid! How did you manage to lose that form? You know full well where everything here goes when you’re done with it you senseless, bumbling, idiotic―oh hello detectives, come on in. We were just finishing up the autopsy of the third boy, so I’ll give you the rundown and then you can get back to what you were doing.”  
“Thanks Dr. Michaels, we really appreciate it,” Brooks said amicably, smiling placatingly at the frustrated coroner as he strode around the room, grabbing a stack of forms roughly and shoving them into Dot’s hands. He went over to the body cabinet and pulled out the three little bodies so that they were out in the open for viewing.  
“Alrighty, so all three of them died by hypoxia, more specifically drowning due to the water in their lungs. Besides the fact that they’re dead, they are in relatively good condition, no injuries and they were well fed. Something about the water composition is odd, so we’re analyzing that but it’ll take a while. This middle guy over here, his clothes caught on a fence or something as he was being carried, so there’s your generic white paint, but it does have higher levels of lead than any paint sold recently. Other than that there’s not much to tell, besides we’ve ID’d them as Jeremy Benson, Charlie Olson, and Ashton Padian. Do with that what you will,” he said without looking up, obviously not pleased at having to lay things out for a couple of detectives. He unceremoniously shoved the bodies back into the cabinet, shut the doors, and began ushering them out of the morgue, saying, “Bye now, that’s all, we’ll contact you when we figure out what’s up with the water.”  
“Uh, thank you Dr. Michaels, we appreciate it,” Dot said, shocked, following Brooks out the door.  
“Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome. I have things to do now, okay?” Dr. Michaels said. Dot and Brooks shared a look, then hurried out the door and away from the irritated man. They got back in the car and drove back to the station to go over what they had found. In what seemed like minutes, they had looked through the forms and found what they needed to know about the boys’ deaths. They found out with a quick search of the families financial records that they were all on vacation on the Cape and staying at the same cottage campground. Soon, Dot and Brooks were once again back in the car on the way to find out why three little boys weren’t reported missing.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dot and Brooks look for the families and make some important deductions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me to chapters 3! Remember, I love reviews!

Dot shifted awkwardly, standing behind Brooks on the steps of cottage number four.  
“Knock again Steve,” she said. He did, but there was no answer. “Maybe just see if the doors unlocked and peek in a little.” He did, peering around the doorframe and catching a whiff of something…dead.  
“Shit, Dot, it smells like a dead body in here. We need to go in there and see what happened.” He looked back at her questioningly and she nodded, drawing her gun. Brooks swung the door open and they strode into the small house, guns at the ready. They split up, Dot taking the upstairs and Brooks taking the downstairs. She opened the door to the first room and found it empty. She continued down the hall to the next bedroom and opened the door. A wave of decomposing body smell hit her so hard she almost threw up. Tucked into the bed, looking almost as if they were sleeping (if you could ignore the blood and the bullet holes), were Jeremy Benton’s parents.  
“Brooks, the parents are up here. Both dead, single bullet to the head. Doesn’t look like they even woke up,” she called down the stairs. She could hear him jogging up the stairs and stopping abruptly at the doorway to the room.  
“Oh Shit. Dot, we’d better call this in. And see if the other families are dead too. That would explain why the kids were never reported missing.” He said, before grabbing gloves out of his back pocket and walking carefully into the room. “You didn’t touch anything, did you?”  
“Come on Brooks, how long have we worked together? Of course I didn’t touch anything. I’m going to go call this in, then pop on over to the Olson’s rental.” Dot said. She pulled her phone out and began dialing the station to ask for a crime scene crew as she walked out of the cottage. Soon she was walking up the steps of the Benton families rental cottage. A quick twist of the doorknob showed that it too was unlocked. She pushed the door open and quietly walked up the stairs to the bedrooms. She nudged the first door open, but it was only the bathroom. The second room proved more useful. Laying in the bed was Damien Olson, Charlie’s 10 year old brother, with a bullet hole through the side of his head. Dot sighed, rubbing her hand over her face. She turned around and briskly walked out, going further down the hall and into the master bedroom, where a similar sight awaited her; the Olson parents dead in their bed. She walked down the stairs and out the door, nearly running into Brooks on the steps. He told her that CSI teams had come for the three families found, and that they were free to head back to the station and get to work. They picked up lunch on the way back, and once again sequestered themselves in their office and began to talk through the case.  
“So he breaks into the cottages, kills the families, and takes the boys. You’d think that if the goal was just murder he would kill the boys with their families, right? So he must want something with them, but there’s no signs of sexual assault. You know, Dr. Michaels said that they were buried the same night they died right? So somebody going in and out of a camping park the same night would seem pretty suspicious,” Dot said around a mouthful of sub. “I bet that if we could pull the security tapes from the entrance we would see the car they were moved in.”  
“Yeah, that makes sense. If you want me to do that, you could probably look through employee records to see if there’s anyone who stands out,” Brooks replied, balling up his trash and throwing it basketball style into the bin. Dot whipped around in her spinny chair, powering up her computer and beginning to search through the records for people who would have had access to the key cards and that had been working the nights of the murders.  
There were six. Six people who were working at the cottage village in a way that would give them access to key cards on the nights of the murder and abductions. Dot sighed, and turned around to face Brooks.  
“Hey Steve, you find anything?” she asked tiredly. He looked up from his computer at the sound of her voice and replied  
“Yeah, I think so. See here, on each of the days on of the boys was dumped, at ten o'clock on the dot, this same navy blue offroader goes in, stays in for two hours, and then leaves at midnight. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’d say that's worth looking into, even if we can't see the plates.” Dot whirled back around to her desk without a word, furiously typing. A few minutes later, she twirled around once more, a triumphant grin on her face.  
“Of the six people that could have gotten into the cottages those nights, only one of them has a navy offroader, one Lenord Bole. He dropped out of college only one semester in, and then apparently got in with a bad crowd, dealing drugs and burgling houses before he was caught and subsequently spent seven years in a state prison. After his release, his dad, who owns the cottages, got him a job as a secretary at the nearby elementary school, and lets him work here over the summers. But that's not all: it seems to me that a few of the brown haired boys at the school have complained of Leonard here acting inappropriately towards them, but for some reason he was never let go.”  
“Wow. Thats pretty conclusive, probably enough to get us a warrant. I’m pretty good friends with Judge Burns, and he’s on duty today so I can probably get it pushed through pretty quick.” Brooks replied. “Print out everything you think is even remotely relevant and I’ll give it all to Judge Burns. With any luck we’ll get this bastard in custody by dinnertime.” He gathered up the multitude of files the printer was spitting out, stuffing them into a folder with the other evidence without even bothering to try to organize it. He strutted out of the office without another glance, a man on a mission.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The suspect gets inerigated by our dynamic duo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, chapter 4! :)

It was now long past dinnertime, edging closer towards sleepytime. Nine o’clock at night was never the best time to do anything, but apprehending a suspect had now moved to the top of her list of things to never do past sundown. But you gotta do what you gotta do, so there they were, on Leonard Bole’s front porch, and Brooks was on the verge of kicking the door in.  
“Leonard Bole, open up! This is the police, we need you to open the door!” he yelled, and lo and behold, open up it did.  
“Whaddya want? It’s getting late and I was gonna go ta bed soon,” he slurred out, obviously three sheets to the wind.  
“Mr. Bole, you’re under arrest for the murder of the Benton, Olsen, and Padian families, and the kidnap and murder of Jeremy Benson, Charlie Olson, and Ashton Padian. You have the right to remain silent…”  
“What tha fuck are ya talkin about this is bullshit, let go of me!” he yelled, fighting against Dots firm grip as she handcuffed him and led him to the police cruiser.  
“Head down Mr. Bole, unless you’d like a nice bump on the head” Dot growled, frustrated with the struggling man. He thought it over for a moment, before relaxing and allowing Dot to shove him down into the back of the police cruiser. He sat, grumbling under his breath for the whole ride to the station, but allowed them to lead him to an interrogation room and handcuff him to the table.  
Brooks and Dot stood in front of the glass, watching as Leonard Bole shifted in his seat, scowling. They had dumped him in there and then left him to stew, instead using the time to go over the approach they would take when they went in to interrogate him. Sharing one last glance, they went in, Dot striding in aggressively, throwing the case file down on the table and dropping down into the chair across from him, while Brooks walked more gently, leaning on the wall by the doorway.  
“Alright Mr. Bole, You know why you’re here. So why don’t we just cut to the chase. Why the hell did you kill those families and take their boys, only to drown and dump then a day and a half later?” Dot began, sneering at the man in front of her. “Is it because you can’t get a girl? Too churlish to get a girlfriend, so you use little boys instead, and why not get their families out of the way in the meantime, eh? Bet you wanted those boys, and that scared you right? So instead of having your way with them you killed them. As if that would change things, make you less of a―”  
“Come on detective Parker, give the man a break. I’m sure he has some sort of explanation, right Leonard? If you just help us out, tell us why you did it, we can help you, maybe get your sentence reduced,” Brooks cut in placatingly.  
“Help him?! Why would we do anything of the sort? He’s a murderer and a pedophile, he deserves whatever he gets.”  
“I don't know what tha fuck you’re talkin about! I didn’t kill nobody, and I sure as hell am not a pedo,” Leonard Bole raged, face red as he lunged forward, standing up as far as his chained wrists would allow.  
“Oh, come on Mr. Bole. We saw the footage of your car going in and out of the campground on the nights those little boys were dumped, and you had access to the key cards the night the families were killed. We know it was you! You're going to prison, and everyone knows what happens to bastards like you in the big house.” Dot yelled right back. She too was now standing, nearly nose to nose with Bole.  
“I didn’t even go out on those nights. I don't leave the house after eight, ever. I was at home doing stuff,” Bole said back, sitting back down. “You gotta believe me!”  
“Were you with anyone who could verify your alibi for us, Mr Bole?” Brooks said, breaking the silence and ending the staring match that was happening between Dot and Bole.  
“No, man, I was home alone,” Leonard Bole said, looking up at Brooks with pleading eyes. “You’ve gotta believe me!”  
“Alright then. That’ll be all for now. One of the officers will escort you to a holding cell for the night, and we’ll come back to this in the morning. Come on, Detective.” Brooks said, and walked out the door, followed by Dot, who glared over her shoulder at the resentful man, before slamming the door behind her. They reconvened in their office, yawning and throwing the files down on their desks.  
“Well that was a bust,” Dot yawned. “I thought for sure he would respond to the whole good cop bad cop thing. He is the type.”  
“Yeah, me too. Maybe tomorrow when he realizes he’s not just going to walk away from this he’ll be willing to talk.” Brooks replied. He rubbed a hand over his face in an effort to wake himself up more, only succeeding in making his crazy hair even crazier. It was almost midnight, and there were only a few other cops left in the station.  
“Okay, so let's get some sleep, and we’ll meet back here at eight thirty to have another go at Bole.” Dot decided, and they grabbed their coats and walked out, going to their separate cars and homes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plot twist! The case is not so cut and dry as they thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter five is in the house! Don't forget to review because I would love some constructive criticism

The call came in at two in the morning. Vacationers reported hearing screams in one of the few cottages that hadn’t been vacated when news of the murders got out. Dot got the call at two thirty, and headed to the the crime scene to meet with Brooks, pouring herself the biggest mug of coffee she could hold. By the time she got there, Brooks was already inside, so she ducked under the tape, dodged around a rookie cop that was puking into the bushes, and was shocked by the state of the scene. It was a bloodbath, to say the least. The family hadn’t been asleep this time, instead were strewn across the living room, a board game set up on the table in the middle. The dad was on the ground, slumped next to his chair, his throat ripped apart by the bullet that had ended his life. There was a puddle of blood by the foot of the stairs where someone had obviously lain, but there was no body there. Huh. she thought. Why would they have moved only one of the bodies? ...she must have survived! One good thing, at least. But her relief was quickly washed away by the feeling of horror. Halfway up the stairs was the body of the now missing boy's sister, Lynn. The bullet had hit her in the back of the head while she was running up the stairs, frantically trying to get away from the monster that had invaded the families vacation. Dot turned her eyes to Brooks, who was standing in the center of the room, one hand covering his mouth, and a horrified look in his eyes.  
“If this is the work of the same guy, that means Leonard Bole has got to be innocent,” he whispered. “And we’re back to square one.”  
“We’ll get him.” Dot replied, “and we’ve got an even better chance now that there’s a living witness.” Brooks nodded, obviously shaken, and let Dot lead him out of the house by the comforting hand she had resting on his shoulder. When they were halfway back to the station, Dot had a realization. She fumbled to grab her phone out of the center console, dialing Brooks number with shaky fingers. He answered on the second ring.  
“Brooks here”  
“Steve, we almost forgot! Remember what Dr. Michaels said, that there was something odd about the water the kids were drowned in?”  
“Yeah…” he replied uncertainly.  
“Well, I just remembered, there were those pipes that rusted through on the inland side of the county, and they leached some chemicals into the water. So, I bet that was what was wrong with the water, and if one of the workers we had on our list lives over there, coupled with our witnesses statement, we could get him, for real this time!”  
“Oh, god, you’re right. Once we let Bole out, we need to go back down to the M.E.’s and get those results. They've got a copper with Sylvia Turner at the hospital, and I’m sure she’ll let us know when we can come talk to her. That’s the newest family's name, by the way. The Turners. They got her from Northern New York for a two week vacation a few days ago. God, what a mess.”  
“I’ll say. Anyways, I’m about to pull into the lot. I’ll be in in a sec and we can get those reports from Dr. Michaels and let that scumbag Bole out.”  
“Dot! You really shouldn’t call him that” Brooks laughed  
“Eh, he can’t hear me. And you read the allegations against him, same as me,” she replied as she pulled into a parking spot. She met Brooks where he was standing by their office, and together they walked to the cell where Leonard Bole was laying on the bed.  
“Well, Mr. Bole, it seems you were telling the truth. You are free to go,” Brooks said, unlocking the door and letting the disheveled man out.  
“What have I been saying this whole fuckin time? Took ya long enough ta realize, ya idiots,” he spat, putting his jacket on and shouldering past them out the door.  
“Christ, what an asshole. I hope I never have to deal with him again,” Dot muttered to Brooks, who snorted. They drove back to the coroner's office, Dot plugging her ears, trying to block out the sound of Brooks singing loudly along to the music on the radio. When they arrived, Dr. Michaels was sitting at his desk eating a taco.  
“What do you guys want? I gave you the report yesterday,” he groused.  
“You need to give us the report about the water. You said you’d have it for us yesterday evening,” Brooks said, ignoring his eye roll.  
“Yeah, it’s right here.” He passed them the folder, which Brooks flipped through before passing to Dot. “The water they were drowned in had extremely high iron levels, probably from the rusted pipes on the inland side of town. Those iron levels weren’t dangerous to drink or anything, but they left mineral deposits like nobody’s business, which is why I noticed.”  
“Thank you Dr. Michaels! That really helps us out. We’ll see you later,” Dot called over her shoulder as she dragged Brooks out the door. On the drive back, she could barely contain her excitement. They were so close she could practically taste it! But when she got back to her computer and added the address to the list of parameters to search for within people with keys working the nights of the murder/abductions, it wasn't as conclusive as she might have hoped. There were still two possibilities. Both Arthur Conway and Xavier Gormley fit the parameters. She was pulled out of her disappointed thoughts by the sound of Brooks’ phone ringing. He answered, said a few words, and hung up again, hoisting himself up out of his chair.  
“That was the cop with Sylvia Turner. She’s awake and ready to answer any of our questions,” he said. Dot sprung up out of her chair and followed him out the door.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our witness has some very valuable information for Dot and Brooks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter six, can you believe it? Thanks for sticking with this story

They entered the hospital room, nodding to the cop at the doorway, and immediately saw Sylvia Turner, laying propped up on a few pillows, her torso and bicep heavily bandaged. She opened her eyes when she heard their footsteps, looking tired and haunted.  
“Hi Mrs. Turner, I’m Detective Parker, and this is Detective Brooks. We were hoping we could ask you a few questions about the man that attacked your family,” Dot said, and Mrs. Turner nodded tiredly, turning her head to look out the window as her eyes went a little misty with the memories of what had happened.  
“We were having game night, and got so caught up in the game we didn’t realize how late it was. Gavin had fallen asleep on the couch around midnight, I think. We didn't even hear the door open, but suddenly I heard a creak, and when I looked up, there was this man standing there. He started shooting and Will screamed and fell out of his chair. Oh god, he was bleeding so much. I started trying to herd Gavin and Lynnie up the stairs, but then he shot me in the shoulder, and I think I fell. He shot Lynnie in the back of the head and she just…” she sobbed quietly, before clearing her throat and wiping her eyes. “She just slumped, I think she was dead instantly. He shot me again. In the stomach this time, then stepped over me to go up the stairs. When he came back down he… he was holding Gavin, like he was precious or something. He kept calling him Peter, I think. He just walked right out the door with my son, and I let him! I....” she trailed off again, silent tears running down her face.  
“I’m so sorry Mrs. Turner. Do you think you could describe what he looked like to me? I know this is hard, but it would really help us find him.”  
“I understand. He was… pretty short actually. His hair was black and curly, and his eyes were… blue, I think. I remember, he had this tattoo on his neck. It was a hawk or something. Some sort of big bird holding a snake, or it might have been a ribbon or something. I… that’s all I remember. Does that help?”  
“Yes Mrs. Turner, it helps us a lot. Thank you so much, and I hope you feel better soon.” As soon as they were out of her hearing range, Dot turned to Brooks with a grin.  
“We’ve got him. There were only two other guys who lived in the right area, and only one with black hair and a neck tat. Its Arthur Conway. And not only that, but his six year old son Peter slipped in the tub while he went to answer the door and subsequently drowned. Less than a year later, his wife left him for a younger man, and then, to add insult to injury, he lost his job at the hospital where he worked as a nurse. Turns out he showed up to work drunk one too many times. We’ve fuckin got him. No judge would be stupid enough to deny us a warrant now,” she said, grinning wolfishly. They rushed back to the police station, Brooks striding off to talk to captain Lawrence about getting cops for the inevitable raid.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to raid the newest suspects house. Will they get there in time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost done! I hope you're all enjoying the story this far

Dot sat in their office swiveling back and forth in her chair, while chugging down what seemed like the thousandth cup of coffee she’d had that day. She didn’t normally drink more than a few cups, but she was running on nothing more than a few hours of sleep and the caffeine. Suddenly, the door slammed open, causing her to slosh some of her coffee onto the floor and let out a little yelp. Brooks came striding in, waving their warrant like a flag.  
“We’ve got our warrant, and captain Lawrence’s got a bunch of guys assembling outside for us to bring. We’ll have that bastard in here in no time,” he called cheerfully, before turning around and striding right back out. Dot scrambled after him, her mug left behind.  
They were on Arthur Conway’s from steps, vests on and guns at the ready. Dot raised her hand and counted down 3...2...1… smash! Brooks kicked the door in, and they fanned out to search the house, her and Brooks going up the stairs, moving as one unit. Amongst the calls of ‘clear!’ Dot heard the sounds of water sloshing around as someone fought for their life. She held up her hand, and they stopped. She made a vague motion, as if to ask ‘you hear that?’ He nodded, and they made their way down to the end of the hall, where the noise was coming from behind a closed door. They exchanged a look, and then Brooks swung the door open and they busted into the room with their guns up at the ready. The sight that greeted them was horrifying. Conway was struggling to hold a flailing Gavin Turner under the water in his bathtub.  
“Arthur Conway, freeze! Let him go, right now!” Brooks bellowed “Let the boy up right now, or we shoot!” Conway laughed, looking up at them with dead eyes. He smirked and let go of the boy, kneeling next to the tub with his hands above his head. Brooks quickly holstered his weapon and pulled Gavin out of the bathtub. As he set him down on the tile with care, Dot started forwards to cuff Arthur Conway. But suddenly, quick as a flash, Conway was on his feet, tackling Brooks around the shoulders and sending him flying into the tub, where his head hit the faucet with a sickening crack. Just a moment too late, Dot pulled the trigger, hitting Arthur Conway square in the forehead, but not in time.  
“Medic! I need a medic up here, please hurry!” She shoved Conway out of the way, knowing he was already dead. She first felt for a pulse on Gavin, pleased to feel the steady beat under her fingertips and watch his small chest rise and fall with steady breaths. When the medics arrived, she allowed them to whisk him away to the hospital where his mother was resting from her own injuries. Steve Brooks was not so lucky. Through the blood pouring from his head and matting in his hair, she could see a sizeable dent in his skull form where it had hit the faucet after Conway tackled him. She laid him out flat on his back so that she could feel for a pulse, and was pleased when she found one, though it was weak and thready. Brooks coughed and groaned, a low painful sound. She patted him on the cheek, saying, “Come on Steve stay awake. Another ambulance is on the way, just stay awake for me.”  
A faint whimper was her only reply. Faintly at first, but getting louder and louder, she heard sirens. Soon after, the sounds of boots on the stairs was audible, as the medics came up with their kits and stretcher in tow. They made quick work of getting him onto the stretcher and off they went. Down the stairs, out the door, to the ambulance she followed, until they stopped at the doors and loaded him in.  
“I’m his partner, is there room for me to ride? I’ll stay out of the way,” Dot asked, voice strained with fear for her long term friend and colleague.  
“Fine. But don’t get in the way,” a blond paramedic snapped, shoving her into the corner to get closer to her patient. Dot watched the whole ride as they worked on Steve, adding monitors and an oxygen mask and wad of gauze after wad of gauze, trying to stem the bleeding from her partner’s damaged skull. When they finally pulled up to the ambulance bay, the paramedics rolled Brooks’ gurney into the emergency room and he was whisked away by hospital doctors and nurses, and Dot was shoved out of the way and into a waiting room chair by a pinched-face nurse in bright green scrubs.  
“Stay here. Not even that badge of yours is going to get you back there with him. They’re taking him into surgery, and they’ll let you know when you can see him. Go get some coffee or something,” he said, before scurrying off back to his desk.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh no! The raid went sideways! Will Steve Brooks be okay? Find out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you don't hate me for this! ;)

Two hours had passed, and still there was no word from the doctors. Dot did as she had been told, pacing back and forth across the dirty tile floor of the hospital waiting room as she sipped her third cup of lukewarm coffee. She eventually flopped down into one of the stiff-backed chairs next to an old woman knitting a revolting orange sweater.  
“Waiting for your boyfriend, sweetie? If you'd like, I have an extra pair of needles you can use,” she offered kindly, smiling over at Dot with sad eyes.  
“No thank you ma’am, I’m fine. And he’s not my boyfriend, he’s my colleague,” Dot replied, rubbing her hands through her tangled hair and pulling it back up into a ponytail.  
“Well it’s very nice of you to wait for him for so long. You two must be very good friends.”  
“Yeah we are. We’ve been partners for almost six years,” Dot replied. Thinking of it like that, she realized how long she had really known him. It seemed like almost yesterday he had been a rookie with an ego the size of a mountain, thinking that he knew exactly what to do, no matter that Dot had been working for the PD for three years already, ever since her tour in the army ended. All it had taken for that to change though, was one mishap. He’d gone into a suspect's house ahead of her, only to get taken hostage by the psychotic man. He had been about to kill him when Dot took the shot, disabling the man without killing him or even injuring him that badly. Since then, Steve had deferred to her experience, and they had gotten along fabulously. They had the best solved case rates of any of the other detective pairs. She was interrupted from her reminiscing by a voice saying  
“Family of Steven Brooks?”  
She looked up to see a red haired doctor in navy scrubs holding a clipboard. She walked over, holding her hand out for the man to shake.  
“I’m Detective Bernadette Parker, Steve’s partner. I rode in the ambulance with him.”  
“Nice to meet you detective, I’m Dr. Appleby. I operated on Det. Brooks. Why don't you come with me and I’ll tell you how he’s doing.” He led her back through the halls to stand outside a room in the ICU.  
“He’s right through here. I’m sorry Ms. Parker but Mr. Brooks is... not in the best shape. When his head hit the faucet, it fractured his skull and the shards embedded themselves in the frontal lobe of his brain. In addition to that, it caused a intracranial bleed, which we were luckily able to stop in time. However, once we ran some test, we noticed that there was… not a lot of brain activity, and that small amount is still decreasing. I’m afraid that at this point, your partner is legally brain dead. We have hopes that with the excellent treatment provided by the nurses here, he’ll likely recover, in body. But just in case, we wanted to inform you that he has on his records a request to DNR in case of an event such as this,” he concluded, resting a hand on Dot’s shoulder for a moment before turning and walking back to see more patients. “Feel free to go in and see him.”  
Dot entered the room with tears in her eyes, which began to spill down her cheeks when she caught sight of her partner and friend. He was as pale as the bandages his head was wrapped in, wavy brown hair shaved off so the doctors could tend to him. He was as still as if he were dead, and if it weren’t for the tube down his throat, pushing air into his lungs and moving his chest up and down, she would have thought that was the case. There were monitors on his chest and head, showing the beat of his heart and the lack of activity in his usually fast moving brain. She gently took hold of his hand and watched him, almost waiting for him to wake up and do that ridiculous smirk of his, and say something bizarre, like how he always yelled ‘yeehaw!’ whenever he finished filling out some paperwork, or tried to use endless pick up lines on the female cops around the station. She sat there for what felt like hours, before she knew she had to go back to the station and write up the reports for the day.  
If it was hard to think about all that had gone wrong that day, it was even harder to write it. She had spent what felt like hours trying to figure out what to write, before just scribbling out how they had realized the killer was in fact Arthur Conway, who had killed the families and taken the kids in a stolen navy offroader in a last ditch effort to replace his son and get his wife to come back to him. They had found the boy and almost had Conway in custody, before he threw himself at Brooks and tackled him into the tub where he hit his head, before Dot took the shot, killing him instantly. It was three pages of what wasn’t her best work, but would suffice given the situation. When she put her pen down and looked around, she noticed how late it was, and decided that she would get some sleep, then go back to visit Steve in the morning.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dot goes back to the hospital to visit her injured friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is it! I hope you enjoyed reading this! Tell me what you think

When she woke up the next morning, she was still exhausted. Sleep had evaded her until the wee hours of the morning, and even when she did fall asleep, it wasn’t restful. But once again, she dragged her tired self out of bed and to the hospital. But when she got out of the hospital, she could see that there was a flurry of nurses going into and out of Brooks’ room. When she drew close, Dr. Appleby intercepted her at the door.  
“Hello again, Detective. Before you go in i'm just going to warn you… overnight your friend took a turn for the worse. At this point, we don’t think that he’s going to make it for much longer than today. I’m very sorry,” he confessed, and without a word she brushed by him into the room.  
She had sat there, holding Steve’s hand and speaking lowly to him in a low voice telling stories of all the crazy things they had done together, and the lives that they had saved, when suddenly one of the monitors began to beep. She stared at it for a moment, worried, and in that moment the beeping started getting faster and faster. After a few seconds, several nurses came rushing into the room. Dot knew what was happening. She knew it had been coming, but that didn’t stop her heart from breaking, just a little bit, when the sounds abruptly stopped. His heart was no longer beating, his chest no longer rising and falling. When one of the nurses stepped forwards to start unhooking him from the monitors, she stopped him.  
“Can I just have a second with him, please?” she whispered, taking his cold hand in both of her own. The nurse nodded, and they left to give Dot a moment of privacy.  
“God, Steve. I don't know what to say but… all I know is that you are a great cop and an even better friend. I’m going to miss you so much.” She stopped for a moment, choking back a sob. “It was a pleasure to work with you; you won’t be forgotten. Goodbye Steve.”  
And with that, she turned on her heel and walked out the door, down the hall, the stairs, and out into the gloomy morning light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for killing off Steve but I had too. Please don't hate me!


End file.
